The Golden Ring Travel Guide

INTRODUCTION:'The
Golden Ring' is one of the oldest Russian routes. It goes to the north-east
of Moscow and forms a circle. There are many interesting ancient Russian
cities and towns along the way, full of history and unique Russian architecture
of the XII-XVII centuries. The 'classical' route (counter clockwise) starts
from Moscow, goes through Vladimir, Suzdal, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Rostov
Velikiy, Pereslavl-Zalesskiy, Sergiev Posad. All cities and towns are
located relatively close to each other, the 'Golden Ring' forms a ring,
so from one place you can reach to another and make a circle until you
get back to the one you started with. Probably, most often you'll use
buses to move along the golden ring, sometimes you 'll use trains. You
can also 'make' the golden ring trip by car.

It is especially good (and just a "must") to visit Baikal if
you're taking a train. This train stops in Irkutsk and rather than sitting
in the train for 6 days waiting Moscow, you can hop off the train in Irkutsk
and make a trip to Baikal Lake. The experiences you will get there will
be incomparable to anything else.

In
Russia we spell Lake Baikal like "Ozero Baykal". The word "Baikal"
came from Turk language. The word "bai" means "wealthy"
and "kul" means "lake". So "Baikal" originally
means "wealthy lake". It IS wealthy. The lake contains 20% of
the world surface fresh water while the flora and fauna of the lake are
mostly endemic.

The lake is so huge and enormous that locals call it sea. This "sea"
is rapidly growing with the average speed of 2 cm (0.8 in) per year. Baikal
is considered to be a future ocean; in several million years there will
be a new great ocean all over Asia and Baikal is a starting point for
this ocean. This remarkable lake is a one of Asia's holy places. Peoples
through over the centuries prayed to the lake and believed in its power.
You can still see at the lake the unique carvings and parts of the ritual
buildings of the tribes that gone thousands years ago.

Baikal
serves as a boundary for two Russian provinces - Buryatia Republic (south-east
shore) and Irkutskaya oblast (north-west shore). The south-western part
of Baikal is more touristic, however north-eastern part is almost deserted
- few inhabitants and almost no tourists. Baikal was added to the World
Heritage list by UNESCO in 1996.